The Problem with the ‘Christian Street’

Christians need to burn more stuff in the street.

When real terrible things happen they are mostly ignored, but when people get offended over nothing, now we have something to talk about.

Take, for instance the contrast between the reaction, both on the street and consequently in the media, to two current stories. The first story is that of a convent and school ransacked and desecrated in Gaza. From Zenit:

A Catholic school and convent were burned and looted during fighting between the Fatah movement and the Hamas militia.
…
“Crosses were broken, a statue of Jesus was damaged, and prayer books were burned at the Rosary Sisters School and nearby convent.”

The second story is that of the Knighthood of Salman Rushdie. From AFP:

Pakistan demanded on Monday that Britain withdraw a knighthood awarded to author Salman Rushdie, as a government minister said the honour gave a justification for suicide attacks by Muslims. Angry protesters in several cities torched British flags and beat them with their shoes in protest at the accolade for the Indian-born writer of “The Satanic Verses” and chanted “Death to Britain, death to Rushdie.”

In one case, there is real cause for outrage and the Christian community and the media issue a collective yawn. On the other hand, a writer who ticked off Muslims twenty years ago is receiving a meaningless title and people to take to the streets, riot, and threaten suicide bombers. Tony Blair’s “feral beast’ (media) laps it all up.

It seems to me that the “Muslim street’ is a heck of a lot more media savvy than Christians could ever hope to be. Even though Christian blood runs in the streets in many places, it seems there is just no story there.

The problem with the ‘christian street’ is that there is no ‘christian street’. We just sit on our arses and say quietly to ourselves, “Oh, isn’t that a shame. We should pray for those people.” All well and good. However, perhaps if Christians took to the streets and threatened to cancel bingo night and maybe burn some Pamela Anderson posters, then we might get somewhere.

(p.s. I would have recommended that we burn Christopher Hitchens posters, but I doubt that there are any.)